Melting
by e-clair 06
Summary: Perhaps water wasn't as powerful as Glinda had let herself believe.


Glinda sat forlornly at her bedroom window with a small green bottle resting in her lap. She stared at the sunset, a brilliant splash of reds and purples against a darkening western sky. According to her specific instructions, she had at least an hour of solitude ahead of her.

Had it only been three days? Glinda felt like a lifetime had passed, a lifetime that seemed to have so much less meaning now that Elphie was gone. So much had changed so quickly, and Glinda could hardly comprehend the magnitude of her loneliness. She had replayed the last hour of Elphie's life over and over again, and it haunted her every time she closed her eyes.

But the more she thought about it, the stranger it began to seem. When she dared to look beyond the surface, it didn't fit together.

Elphaba had melted. That much she believed she could say with certainty. Though Glinda hadn't seen it take place, when she had emerged from the closet moments after the screams and cries had faded, there was only a wet pile of black garments on the floor with the black pointed hat resting serenely on top. There was no body and there was no blood. And so Glinda could only assume that her friend melted away into nothingness. _"Water will melt her." _That's what the man had said, wasn't it? In the moment of grief and confusion that was all Glinda could remember from the day in the town square.

But now she recalled more of the man's remark. "_I hear her soul is so unclean, pure water will melt her." _"**Elphie's soul-unclean? No more than my own**," Glinda thought. Her friend had always tried to do so much good. She had cared so little for her own welfare. She stood up for what she believed in, she did what was right even when people misunderstood her and turned against her. Glinda could hardly say the same of her own behavior. So if water melted people who were unclean, why hadn't she been dissolved into her bathwater years ago?

The scene unfolded further. She could recall Fiyero's frustration as he spat out the words, and she could see the anguish he felt for his friend as it flickered in his dark eyes. "_Water will __**melt**__ her? People are so empty headed they'll believe anything." _Glinda remembered her own scorn of the man's ignorance that was stimulated by Fiyero's simple but profound observation. Since when could water melt anybody?

With a start, Glinda realized her own ignorance. She had been more than willing to believe the same lie simply because the facts in front of her had seemed too obvious to ignore. She'd been guilty of that her whole life. She was far too easily persuaded by what was on the outside and by what people said. Maybe, as she had learned to do with Elphaba, she needed to look past what seemed to be the easiest explanation and consider a more accurate reality, a reality in which people didn't melt and green skin didn't reflect a distorted soul

Another memory came to mind. After Elphaba had received the letter from that Monkey, she had stated that it was time for her to surrender. In an attitude of defeat, she had carried a bucket of water to the corridor outside the room. Glinda and Elphaba had bidden each other goodbye, and the whole nightmare had unfolded. Or had it?

"_You'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart." _Elphie's words to Glinda didn't sound like the words of someone who knew that her death was rapidly approaching. She had never said anything about suicide, and the Elphaba Glinda knew would never be so foolish or so weak as to facilitate her own murder. So if Elphie believed that she could melt when water touched her, she wouldn't have purposely placed a bucket in easy reach of those seeking her death.

"**Unless she wanted the people to believe she had died." **Glinda mouthed the words to herself as the last colors of the sunset faded. In the growing darkness, Glinda came to a sudden understanding of the truth about that night at Kiamo Ko. Always resourceful, Elphaba had used the rumors to her advantage. She had chosen to sacrifice herself because she knew that would give Glinda a chance to make something good out of all the corruption in Oz. But she hadn't sacrificed her life. Despite the reality that there was no way to know for certain, Glinda had never been more sure of anything in her entire life.

And while the ache of her loss didn't go away, the nature of the pain changed and became bearable. Though Glinda would always miss her best friend and grieve for the time they could not spend together, it was infinitely worse when she had to believe that Elphaba was gone forever.

Glinda took one last look at the western sky. Somewhere out there, Elphaba was starting over and striving to do something good wherever she was. And Glinda resolved to do the same. She knew that was what Elphaba would want.

"I'm going to make you proud, Elphie." Glinda whispered. In the other room, she could hear her maid start running water for her bath. A hint of a smile crossed her face. "That is, if I don't melt first." And somewhere to the west, she thought she could hear Elphie's laughter.


End file.
